SANs, Profs To Defend ASUU Before Industrial Court

Members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities who are Senior Advocates of Nigeria and Professors of Law among others will be defending the union as the case instituted by the Federal Government at the National Industrial Court comes up for hearing on Monday (today).

The Lawyer reports that the Federal Government had dragged the union before the NIC over its ongoing strike which started on February 14, 2022.

The union is demanding, among others, the release of the revitalisation fund for universities, release of earned allowances for university lecturers, deployment of the University Transparency Accountability System for the payment of salaries and allowances of lecturers, release of the white paper report of the visitation panels to universities and the renegotiation of the ASUU-FGN 2009 agreement.

After efforts to end the strike failed, the government decided to drag the union before the industrial court.

In an interview with press on Sunday, a member of the union’s National Executive Council, who did not want his name in print because he was not assigned to speak with the press, said the union would make use of its members who are senior lawyers.

“The president is meant to address this but we will be in court on Monday (today); we have members who are Senior Advocates and Professors of Law, they will be defending the union pro-bono,” the source said.

Also speaking with press, the union’s National Vice-President, Dr Chris Piwuna, confirmed that members would be in court for the hearing.

“We will be in court tomorrow (Monday) morning. Earlier, we met with the Minister of Education but we are ready for anything. That is the nature of the struggle,” he said.

In a separate interview, the chairman, ASUU of the Federal University of Minna, Dr Gbolahan Bolarin, said, “We are in receipt of the letter and we will be in court tomorrow (Monday). We are, however, shocked at the decision of the Minister of Labour, Chris Ngige.”

Meanwhile, the Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, asked the court to give the case an accelerated hearing to quickly bring the strike to an end.

The minister, in a court document, marked HMO/LAB/ISO/15, said, “In view of the fact that ASUU members have been on strike since February 14, 2022, and have refused to call off the action despite the apprehension of same, it would be appreciated if this dispute is given an accelerated hearing to bring the dispute to an end.”